Charlebois symphonique | An 80th symphonic anniversary

Robert Charlebois turned 80 on June 25, and he’s treating himself to a symphonic concert with the OSM for the occasion. We took the opportunity to catch up with him and talk to him about everything and nothing – especially everything!

Charlebois Symphonicwhich will be presented from August 22 to 24 at the Maison symphonique, will bring together 88 musicians, 16 choristers and 2 soloists. Despite the stress that can be “draining” in the days preceding an event of this magnitude, this kind of project is especially stimulating for Robert Charlebois.

“That’s what keeps you young,” says the tireless living legend, who will fly to Paris a few days later to sing alone at the piano, on the Seine, under the Pont Alexandre-III, on the occasion of the Paralympic Games. Not to mention his tour Charlebois, Ducharme and… the otherswhich continues this fall.

What is not boring is an interview with Robert Charlebois, amazed like a child when he enters the Maison symphonique for the photo session – he will have to touch all the instruments! –, lavish in delightful anecdotes and master of the fascinating digression.

In one hour, he will return to Félix Leclerc’s stage fright in the dressing rooms of the Butte à Mathieu or his meeting in California with the young Frank Zappa and Kent Nagano, he will talk about Gainsbourg who drank Ricard in the morning at the bar of the Méridien. He will also tell us about a symphony concert he gave in Poland at the time of the Iron Curtain, the story of a man who left him “20 bucks of tip” after a performance at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and the magic that emerged from the show he gave in Mégantic last Saturday.

“There were even little Swifties in front! It touches me when I see teenagers, mothers and grandmothers in my shows. That’s rare! I don’t know if there are rappers who will have careers that last 60 years… but I doubt it.”

We also learned that for her birthday in June, Yvon Deschamps, at the top of his game, dedicated a monologue to her that made all the guests collapse with laughter. And that during the corn roast organized for Judy Richards’ birthday recently, the lifelong friends, gathered for the occasion, talked a lot about Jean-Pierre Ferland, who died in April.

“He leaves an extraordinary body of work. I really liked it Your face “, says Charlebois, who had almost the same birthday as Ferland… ten years apart. “He was born on June 24, so I always called him the day before my birthday.” His writing was so unique that even Réjean Ducharme admired him, he adds. “He dreamed of me doing a song with Jean-Pierre. That it came from Réjean, who was stingy with compliments, says it all.”

Finding the balance

“A symphonic concert, it seems to me that that would make a good last show,” says Charlebois with a smile. “I’m not saying that it will be my last, but for now it is… because it’s my most recent!”

It won’t be a summary show either, but an opportunity to delve into his repertoire, extract nuggets, interpret his essentials, and above all present them differently.

“You can’t always make the same hot dogs and ask people to always come and eat them. If they still come to my restaurant after 50-60 years, it’s because they find something new every time, and they’re going to have a balanced meal.”

Are there songs he doesn’t want to sing anymore? No, but he sometimes lets some “rest” for a few years. “Like FrogI didn’t sing it for a while,” he said.

This is not the first time the singer has performed with a symphony orchestra. For him, it is “an extraordinary machine, a toy.” “Even a rock band can’t go as powerfully as when there are choirs and 88 musicians, and as softly when it has to play softly,” he says. “The extremes are really striking.”

And there is an additional challenge, since the show will be entirely symphonic, without the rhythmic support of drums and bass. “I will still have to get the conductor to give me some cues “, laughs Robert Charlebois, who likes to say that he is “not an opera singer, but an aperitif singer”.

“I don’t claim to be a great pianist either. I’m a pickaxe. They’ve had Hamelins before me! Of course people will laugh in the show, but if they laugh while I’m playing the piano, it’s because I made a mistake somewhere!”

At the forefront

Robert Charlebois explains that a fully symphonic show will also allow him to tour everywhere there are orchestras, in Quebec and France, so to go solo, in a way. “We just have to find good conductors, put our foot down and send the scores.” Moreover, when he listens to the demos of the symphonic versions of his songs, he can’t believe it.

“There were already a lot of orchestral elements in his songs,” observes Hugo Bégin, who wrote all the arrangements. The orchestrator had a field day on this “beautiful playground,” notes conductor Jacques Lacombe, who will lead the concert. “This is the first time I’ve heard a pipe organ in a pop concert! You had to think of it.”

Charlebois put his lyricists forward a lot, but it is the music he composed that will be magnified this time. For Jacques Lacombe, his musical writing was often avant-garde.

“The choice of chords, of modulations, there was something that was ahead of its time, quite inventive. He took paths that had not been explored much in popular music,” says the conductor, who praises Charlebois’ ability to touch on several musical genres, and his “very personal” sense of melody.

In addition to the challenge of performing without a rock rhythm section, Robert Charlebois will sing in the same keys as he did 30 or 40 years ago, Jacques Lacombe also noted. “Usually, when you get older, the high notes go away. Robert, he’s still in full voice. Everything is in the original keys, which is quite impressive.”

Having seen a few of Charlebois’ shows in recent years, it’s true that the singer seems to be in both voice and form. He worried us a bit in May, when he had a vagal seizure before a show in Joliette.

“I’m fine; it’s so stupid, what happened,” he tells us when asked about his health. His discomfort is the result of a long car ride—“I had time to listen to all 31 songs on Taylor Swift’s new album!”—a drop in blood pressure caused by hunger, and, he believes, a tight garment that cut off his circulation.

“When I got up to do my sound check, I was dizzy. They grabbed me, they saved my guitar, my beautiful white Gretsch… Afterwards, I tried to play sitting down, but I couldn’t find my fingers, my hands were sweaty, so I went to the hospital,” says the singer, who says he takes “death pills” to thin the blood and prevent strokes.

“I may die one day, but for now, no.”

Charlebois SymphonicAugust 22, 23 and 24, at the Maison symphonique de Montréal

Check out the event page